How Spotify Is Helping Brands Curate Their Way Through the Attention Recession

Editor’s note: This is the sixth installment of Beats, Bytes and Brands, a monthly column on the newest trends and activations converging across the music industry and brand marketing. Gen X really doesn’t get enough credit for creating the mix tape. The practice of declaring one’s love or curating songs the way a museum displays exhibits has long outlived the cassette tape, and it triggered the evolution of how we format the music of our lives. Music streaming platforms have become powerful social networks with deep levels of engagement, and step one on Spotify is almost always creating a new playlist. While streaming has grown nearly 25% in the first half of 2022, Pew Research showed that platforms like Facebook and Twitter have declined in usage, particularly among teens. The solution for marketers has been tapping into playlist culture through platforms like Spotify. The curation of playlists has evolved from a simple collection of songs to social brands with such powerful cultural relevance that playlists like Spotify’s RapCaviar have branched out into touring and video-on-demand properties commanding an audience of millions. As brands begin to lean into the idea of building an audio mood board via playlist culture, many are meeting fans where they are streaming and discovering music, which according to Spotify, is on fan-made or artist playlists. As brands begin making themselves “playlistable,” we broke down four frameworks marketers are using to captivate music listeners to build their own sonic influence. 4 Music Trends That Defined the Second Quarter of 2022 Enhance the product experience Music is a key component for many types of product experiences, perhaps none more so than retail. With 84% of consumers agreeing music plays an important role in an enjoyable shopping experience, brands like H&M have begun migrating their brick-and-mortar playlist to Spotify, allowing for their brand community to experience the H&M In Store Music mood board on the go. With over 27 Spotify playlists, Starbucks has gone beyond the in-store playlist to curate guest editorial takeovers with the likes of Alicia Keys to genre-themed playlists like its Summertime Hip-Hop. Even PacSun has created playlists like #MyDenimStory, which uses music to contextualize the sound of their prominent in-store products. Connect to a fan’s lifestyle Creating playlists that compliment a fan’s lifestyle is a powerful way to connect with the social ecosystem on Spotify. For wellness and fitness brands, Spotify has shown a 44% year-over-year growth in wellness playlist streams. Tapping into this demand are brands like Peloton, who manages a suite of over 30 playlists ranging from instructor-created to thematic playlists around events like AAPI Heritage Month. Other brands such as Nike have curated workouts for specific athletic lifestyles. For example, its Nike Run Club playlist profile has an impressive community of over a million followers on Spotify. Help fans find your brand’s synchs The use of recorded music in advertising, film, games and TV climbed by 22% in 2021, prompting consumers to explore the music that brands are using alongside their content. The interest in this underlying music is so prominent that Shazam, a music identification app with over 225 million users, recently surpassed 1 billion "shazams" per month. The opportunity for brands to meet audiences around their music search offers a linear path for brands to engage with playlist culture. For example, Peacock’s hit show, Love Island, gave fans a streamlined experience to easily discover the songs featured in the reality show through an official Spotify playlist. Netflix took a similar path launching a Stranger Things 4 playlist, while Coca-Cola curated a playlist titled Coca-Cola Commercials to showcase all the songs used across its suite of commercials to its more than 1 million followers on Spotify. Connect playlists to IRL events With 61% of sports fans planning to attend a game this year, brands have begun connecting their in-person event marketing to their playlisting strategies. For instance, Modern Health took their partnership with Naomi Osaka to playlists, debuting her pre-match U.S. Open playlist and giving fans a closer look into her routine. ESPN took to Spotify to celebrate the beginning of the 2022 college football season with a playlist curated in partnership with artist Yungblud, whose track "The Emperor" will serve as the anthem for ESPN’s college football coverage. New playlist models focused on podcasting Looking ahead, with U.S. podcast listenership growing 40% over the past three years and more than 50% of children now listening to podcasts, we anticipate more brands will follow ears into the podcast landscape by supplementing the development of original branded podcasts with curated podcast playlists. Look for brands to begin spending a bigger chunk of the $1.4 billion advertising monies on podcasts, growing the playlist communities these brands curate through music and podcasts. Music is more than just content. It’s the soundtrack of our lives. And with the curation of every new playlist, brands have a chance to get in on the rhythm. Spotify Revolutionized Podcasting. Can It Do the Same for Podcast Ads?